Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus for inspecting a printed product printed by a printing apparatus, an inspection method, an inspection system, and a computer-readable storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-42601 discusses a printing apparatus which inspects an image printed on a printed product. If the printing apparatus determines that a printing error has occurred (i.e., printing is no-good (NG)) in the printed product, the printing apparatus stops feeding sheets and prints on previously-fed sheets (referred to as residual sheets). The printing apparatus inspects the printed residual sheets. If the number of residual sheets determined to include printing errors is greater than a predetermined number of sheets, or a percentage of errors is greater than a reference value, the printing apparatus determines that the printing error continuously occurs and thus stops printing. If the printing apparatus determines that the printing error does not continuously occur, the printing apparatus determines that the printing error occurs transiently. The printing apparatus then restarts feeding of the sheets and continues printing.
There are printing errors that occur intermittently (e.g., at intervals of several sheets) due to a defect in the printing apparatus. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-42601 discusses a printing apparatus which determines the residual sheets having the printing errors, and then determines a type of printing error based on the number or the percentage of the residual sheets determined to have the printing error. In other words, the printing apparatus determines that the printing error is occurring in units of sheets, and then determines the type of printing error. However, the printing apparatus does not determine the type of the printing error by considering characteristics of each printing error occurring in the sheet.
As a result, if the printing error occurs intermittently, the number of residual sheets determined to have the printing errors may become less than or equal to the reference value depending on an occurrence frequency of the printing error. The printing apparatus may thus determine the printing error which continuously occurs, as a printing error which occurs transiently, and continue printing, so that printed products having the printing errors are mass-produced, and a great amount of sheets is printed wastefully.